-- DO ME A FAVOUR && [open]

Joshua opened his mouth to warn the girl of the obstruction when she drew close to the table but by the time he noticed her presence, she was already bumping into the edge. He winced sympathetically but she didn't seem to notice—not that he blamed her, considering the fact that she was probably dealing with a sharp pain in her side at this point. He gazed coolly at the girl who'd interrupted his silent vigil over the body, noting how she glanced down the halls but not realising that it might have been out of paranoia or fear. He was considering asking her if she was alright when she spoke, and at the joke his lips twitched and broke the façade of his intense exterior, his expression lightning ever so slightly. "Deadly," he agreed. He said it as if there was nothing at all wrong with what was going on and like this was an occurrence that might have happened daily. He was a pretty calm and composed guy when it all came down to it.

"Are you alright?" He had once expressed little to no concern over the well-being of strangers but years of working in a hospital environment and truly adjusting to his passion for medicine had softened him slightly to the woes and injuries of others. He still wasn't the shoulder to cry on for any random stranger who happened to cross his path but he was at least more considerate when it came to pain. "I would have warned you but I was a bit distracted myself." It was not an apology but it was close to one as she was probably going to get. He did not necessarily owe her an apology, seeing as she was equally at fault for not looking where she was going, but even if he had Josh would not have thought to offer one. Apologising simply wasn't his way of going about it. There was a slight irony in that he was Canadian and it was one of the larger stereotypes attached to them, the fact that they were nice, but his pride did not make him a bad person. Just a stubborn one.

His distractions had come in the form of his thoughts, something he often became lost in when he was left to his own devices. Joshua's mind had a hard time shutting off no matter what he was doing. He was always thinking about something or another, never really the type to drift into a daydreaming state. He'd been thinking about a history paper that he needed to write and how imperative it was that he not forget to do some research when he returned home that evening. He'd been hoping to spend some time with Nell but he figured that might have to wait if he wanted to get an early start on the paper. Pushing these thoughts to the side before they diverted him any further from reality, he glanced at the corpse and then back at the girl. "You know, I'd say 'it's not what it looks like', but it really is." It was a dead guy. A very dead one. At least Joshua had no hand in killing him. He didn't think he could take the life of another person. The Fire could be violent and volatile if his temper was provoked but he did not see himself as a murderer.

Offering a hand in order to seem a little less unfriendly, he said, "I'm Joshua. Where were you going, anyway?" A smile touched his lips, almost teasing, as he added, "Before you bumped into John Doe here." He did not know what the name of the man had actually been. He supposed it might be written down somewhere or perhaps on a toe tag that had been removed for the sake of the lab. It was a little more disturbing to see someone being cut up if you knew their name. Human nature dictated it to be so. Joshua was desensitized to a lot of these things owing to the fact that he worked in a hospital and saw dead folk quite a bit. It was sad, but it was life. He was becoming a doctor to try and prevent death but he was not a god. People died no matter what sort of intervention took place. Mortality was a terrible thing.

Joshua was glad to hear she was alright, even though it hadn't seemed a very bad injury to begin with. She wasn't pouring blood everywhere and she didn't need to be hospitalized. As he worked in a hospital, the Fire graduate was quite accustomed to seeing all manner of grotesque and gory wounds or afflictions. It could turn the stomach of many with low composure but he swore he had a stomach of steel after his years of volunteering. He didn't have to deal with these injuries (he wasn't a doctor yet, much as he wanted to be) but he saw them being wheeled down the halls and sometimes when he popped into a room to deliver supplies. A bruised hip had nothing on what he'd seen.

He smirked, playing along as he said, "Alright, let's see what I can come up with." He frowned and tapped his chin with a finger as if he were really thinking hard. Joshua had an excellent poker face and he maintained a serious, critical expression throughout. On the inside he was laughing but that said nothing for his calmed exterior. Breaking his façade with a slight grin, brief but genuine, Joshua said, "It's a cadaver for Anatomy. I'll soon know more about this guy's inner workings than I'd ever care to learn." In actuality, Joshua was fascinated by the advanced anatomical lessons. He wanted to soak up as much knowledge as he could before he went off to medical school and experienced these sorts of things for real. He was most looking forward to residency but that was years away. He needed to focus more on the present, lest he got lost within his wanderings.

Upon finding out that she was lost, he was not all that surprised. The halls were maze-like and easy to get tangled up in. He remembered relying on his map for the entirety of the ninth grade, pinning it inside his binder so that other people did not know when he was looking at it. He had a lot of pride and did not like to admit when he was clueless about sometimes. He noticed her gesturing with her hands and wondered what it meant, having never learned sign language himself. He got the general gist of what she was saying, though, and he smiled. "I might not have Dora as company but I certainly know my way around. I've been here seven years." Well, six and a half, but who really needed to get into specifics? He only bothered with minute details when it counted. "Where do you want to go? I could show you around, help you get your bearings. And the office has maps, so we could go there if you want. I just need to wait for my friend to get ba—oh, here he is now."

Ryan seemed surprised that Josh had found company but didn't comment on this fact, merely holding up the right keys in silent triumph. "Thought you'd lost your way, Ry," he teased, and the Earth glared at him. His friend opened the door and wheeled the cadaver inside, closing and locking it behind him. "I'll get these back to Sanders. See you, Dale." Registering the use of his last name, Josh's lips twitched with amusement. "Ah, sorry about that. My lab partner. Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Natalie." He had noticed the hearing aid and it finally clicked to him why she might have been gesturing with her hands. He wondered how hard sign language was to learn. He'd never tried. "What element are you in?" he asked, curious. It would suck if she turned out to be Thunder or Fire. It was always awkward to introduce yourself and then learn that they were the enemy.

[Oh, that's fine, I love dialogue <3]

He thought about her question before answering. "I suppose so. Not exactly, as I'm not in medical school quite yet, but that's why I took Biology as my first major." Despite his serious answer, Josh felt a twinge of pride when she referred to him as a medical student. He loved the idea that he would one day become a doctor, one of the great minds that worked on recovering the human body from all sorts of illnesses and injuries. It was not only a fascination but a passion. Everyone should remain proud of their passions. "Definitely sucks to be him," he agreed. Joshua was not entirely sure how the guy had died. He'd not seen many cadavers due to how expensive they were for the Academy to purchase but most of them had seemed to be in good condition as far as their physical appearance. He supposed they wouldn't choose anyone who died of a serious injury so that it was easier on both the professor and students. Hell, he didn't know what went through the minds of the higher-ups. At any rate, he'd done enough animal dissection in earlier years to know that it wouldn't bother him too much.

He might not have known sign language but he did recognise facial cues, thankfully enough. "I'm a junior, college." He doubted the high school kids would get to work with human cadavers—nor did they have majors. His high school experience had not been a bad one but he definitely preferred the broad range of things he was learning now. Though he'd been at the top of his class even then, he cared much less about English than, say, Biochemistry. He was good at English, yes, but it was not the subject of his passions. "So you're a... freshman?" He did not realise she was in twelfth grade, high school only being four years in length for those that passed every year. He did not consider special circumstances and merely made assumptions based on his own smooth experiences. He was not the type to take everything into account during conversation. It was a bad habit.

He nodded with understanding when she requested the location to the dormitories and laughed at her comment on cutting people open. It was at that point that he realised he did not know her element and thus asked her, needing to know which of the five dorms to point her toward. Water, he thought, relief seeping through him. Her kind had irritated him when he'd first betrayed his previous alignment but he'd slowly grown accustomed to their personalities. His new allies accepted him and that was enough for Josh to give them a chance, too. "You caught me," he said with a chuckle when she mentioned Fire, lifting his hands slightly and letting them drop back to his sides. He hoped she was joking. It sounded like it but he could never be sure. "Don't worry, though, I'm on your side." He always tried to refrain from saying outright, 'I'm a traitor'. It made his switching sides sound like a bad thing. He knew the Fires and Thunders saw it as such but he loved his fiancée and she was the reason for his betrayal. They could shove it.

Remembering the point of his question, this being the direction of the dormitories, he ran a mental map in his mind and turned until he was facing a certain hallway. "It's on the first floor. Staircase leading down is at the end of that hall. Mess hall is to the right of the stairs, though I'm sure you know that." He smiled. He wasn't insulting her but being genuine. After four years she probably knew the first floor extremely well, it was the upper floors that tended to pose a problem for most people. He wondered whether she'd leave right away or whether she was content to stay and chat for a little while longer. He had nothing to do, so he wasn't bothered either way.